Floating UI - Overview

In recent days, I have been delving into how floating UI works under the hood. Since this UI library is the foundation for how radix-ui and base-ui implement their menu components, it is a really well-designed library. In the coming days, I will share some progress from my study of the library.

#The learning path

#Foundation (Understanding the architecture)

1. How nested menus communicate - FloatingTree & FloatingNode
2. How components coordinate - Event system (Event Emitter)

#Core Interactions (Opening/closing the menu)

1. Basic open/close - useClick
2. Outside click & Escape key - useDismiss
3. Hover behavior - useHover + safePolygon, similar what we have discussed in Pointer Grace Areas

#Navigation (Moving through menu items)

1. Arrow keys, Home/End - useListNavigation
2. Quick search by typing - useTypeahead

#Polish (Accessibility & rendering)

1. Focus trapping - FloatingFocusManager
2. ARIA semantics - useRole
3. DOM rendering strategy - FloatingPortal

Let's crack on!